Altogether six tautomers of cytosine and three tautomers of cytidine and deoxycytidine are studied theoretically in the gas phase and in a microhydrated environment. Their structures are optimized at MP2/6-31 + G(d,p) level. The relative energies of the isolated and the hydrated tautomers included the correction to higher correlation energy terms evaluated at the SCS-MP2, MP4, and CCSD(T) levels. The free energies at 298 K and higher temperatures are based on the above-mentioned relative energies and temperature-dependent enthalpy terms and entropies evaluated at the MP2/6-31 + G(d,p) level. Theoretical predictions for the coexistence of five species for cytosine in the gas phase (canonical, trans-and cis-enol-amino, transand cis-imino-oxo forms) fully agree with recent experimental results. Five-hydrated cytosine tautomeric forms of are investigated at CPCM/SCS-MP2/6-31 + G(d,p) level to evaluate the interconversion barriers between them and to explain the coexistence, experimentally proven, of two amino-oxo and one imino-oxo tautomers of cytosine in aqueous solution. The presence of coordinated water molecules acting as a catalyst make the tautomerization processes quite easier. It appeared clear from the obtained data that the influence of the hydrogen-bonded water molecules as well as the introduction of solvent effects in reducing the height of the tautomerization barriers for these five-hydrated systems is quite substantial. Similar results are obtained for the tri-hydrated cytidine and the 2-deoxycytidine tautomeric forms. In aqueous solution of cytidine, syn-and syn-clinal-conformers оf the amino-oxo tautomer should coexist with small amounts of syn-and syn-clinal conformers оf iminooxo tautomer. For 2-deoxycytidine an equilibrium has been found to exist between the syn-and anti-conformers of the amino-oxo and the imino-oxo tautomers. The water-assisted proton transfer reactions released through asynchronous concerted mechanism and the conformation of the sugar ring in nucleosides does not change during the tautomerization.